Bernard's Poetry
Bernard’s first volumes of poetry are about to be published in Germany. In one of the prefaces Sybille Forster-Rentmeister writes:
"What can one say about a person who builds pictures for the soul, practices disdain towards offenders against humanity, and who kept his sense of humor despite of it?
It is occasionally black, or at least charcoal, this sense of humor. It has bite, often teases us, does not reveal whether this is serious or not, and especially, it does not let us know anything about the author’s origin. But this is not important in the global village we live in. Universal pains as well as humor are being understood better than ever before. We moved closer together. Afterall, a headache hurts the same way in the orient as it does in the oxidant; we know that nowadays. We all are breathing the same polluted air, eat the same poisoned food, and watch the same reports about the same despots in power. Love and hate find similar familiar expression anywhere; the intelligence still maintains silence in potent moments, the mob still screams the loudest, and money still reins the world.
That makes it easy to address people on two sides of an ocean at the same time. We all have the same concerns, the same problems; we want to survive.
How that happens or doesn’t happen, was and is worthy of shining a light on, best by a poet, who is able to make the purchase of shoes dramatic and a disaster of global proportions a satirical adventure. With almost sadistically exactness we are being asked to live or to think, which is the same. This synonym expects of us that we reexamine our lives, ask ourselves where we stand in regards to various things, simply because so many things are so familiar to us as though we had written them down ourselves. But we did not. Bernard did it and did it so well that we instantly are related. His ‘thought-pictures’, as I dubbed them, have a home with us, are familiar.
How can that be? Several years ago he took his Tyrolean hat and migrated to the New World, because of love. Karl May’s Romantic got stuck in his throat very quickly. Without familiar people other then the big love, life felt much harsher as it would be experienced in orderly and known circles.
There is no question that Bernard mastered his life because he has his creativity. Frustration is gotten rid off by writing and through work; and when he writes we can be grateful to b e able to read it. His satirical ways of puncturing nearly everything in life makes his friends look out for a daily Bernard injection. Thus life can be digested easily.
Bon Appetite! The menu is superb."
Sybille Forster-Rentmeister
(Publisher /Editor of the triple award winning Echo Germanica)
Bernard’s poems are published in German and can be ordered under:
The titles:
Freundliche Arschtritte, 120 pages, Euro 11.80
Sex mit Seele, 90 pages, Euro 10.50
Gereimte Feinheiten (Culinary Poetry), 100 pages, Euro 15.50
At:
Buchverlag Andrea Schmitz
Hauptstrasse 17
21442 Toppenstedt
Germany
Tel. 04173-512610
Fax 04173-512612
Some samples of his
poetry in English,
translated by Sybille Forster-Rentmeister:
Mix-up with Consequences
or
The Murder of a Duck
Good Morning or the Chain reaction